No. 77 Line

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This article describes a bus line of the Maryland Transit Administration. Information provided here is derived from old schedules and other archived resources.

The no. 77 line is a bus line operated by the Maryland Transit Administration in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. It currently runs from the Old Court Metro Subway Station in Pikesville, Maryland to the Patapsco Light Rail Stop in South Baltimore. Service is provided about once every 30 minutes on weekdays and Saturdays, and hourly late at night and on Sundays. The line serves the intermediate communities of Randallstown, Windsor Mill, Woodlawn, Catonsville, Arbutus, Halethorpe, and Landsdowne. It stops on the campuses of UMBC and CCBC Catonsville.

The no. 77 line started operating in 1974 as an experimental service, originating from the center of Pikesville, and terminating at UMBC. At that time, service was provided on weekdays only, with rush hour service operating only once every 40 minutes and midday service provided every 50 minutes. The line, which was designed to provide service for the students of UMBC and Catonsville Community College, and had its schedule coordinated to the classes of these two institutions, did not provide service out of Pikesville before 6:30 AM or UMBC before 7:30 AM. Within the decades that followed, the line performed above expectations, drawing riders from far beyond that college crowd, and proving that a cross-county (suburb-to-suburb) bus line could succeed in the Baltimore area.

In 1987, with the opening of the Old Court Metro Subway Station, and the extension of the No. M-2 Line to this location, the station became the new northern terminus for the no. 77 line as well. The two lines would both loop and meet at this stop.

[edit] Expansion

In 1995, after buses had already become overcrowded, the no. 77 line saw its first expansion in service. Rush hour service was increased to one bus every 25 minutes, and midday service was improved to 45 minutes. In addition, eight selected trips each day were extended south of the long-time UMBC loop to the Patapsco Light Rail Stop through the Halethorpe area, providing improved connections.

In 1997, Saturday service was added on the line. This service initially operated hourly between the Old Court Metro Subway Station and Security Square Mall only. Having been very successful, the service was extended to UMBC, and its frequency increased to every 45 minutes.

In 2001, Sunday service was added on this line, which followed the same schedule as Saturday service.

In 2005, the line saw its best yet improvement. Midday and Saturday service was increased to one bus every 30 minutes. All trips were extended south of UMBC to the Patapsco Light Rail Stop. This extension was made possible at no extra cost by removing a similar portion of the No. 31 Line (now known as the No. 35 Line) between UMBC and Halethorpe, and adding it to the no. 77 line following a nearly identical route.

Only Sunday service saw a frequency reduction - to one bus hourly. This allowed service to be extended to Patapsco at no extra cost.

To this day, the no. 77 line remains one of MTA's most successful suburban bus services consistently drawing full busloads and keeping excellent schedule adherence.